


Hypnotize Me Through

by physics_magic



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Baking, F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Hospitals, Light Angst, Minor Injuries, Nicknames, Sirens, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Will who?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29173995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/physics_magic/pseuds/physics_magic
Summary: “Hmm, you might need a second bottle with how thirsty you look,” Penelope said contemplatively. JJ choked on her water as Emily glanced over her shoulder with kohl-lined lashes and winked.Winked.Or: drabble prompt fills for the Femslash February challenge.
Relationships: Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Emily Prentiss
Kudos: 85





	1. Red

**Author's Note:**

> No idea how many I'll get to but I hope you enjoy all the same. Find the prompt list [here](https://femslashfeb.tumblr.com/tagged/prompt-list).

Fact: Emily has always looked amazing in red.

JJ remembers two years ago for Derek’s birthday how she’d shown up in a crimson cocktail dress with rubies dripping from her ears, ebony hair loose and wavy, a thin golden chain accentuating her lovely neck, A-line hem flirting with the tops of her knees. Chunky black heels made her slightly taller than Derek as she swatted at his teasing with a black beaded clutch.

And then she’d turned around and JJ’s mouth had gone dry at the plunging neckline that exposed ivory skin from nape to the small of her back. Those sharp shoulder blades had flexed enticingly as she leaned forward to hug Derek with a laugh, and JJ wanted to bite them.

The sudden zing of arousal had been so strong she almost teetered off her own heels.

“Here, honey,” Penelope had magically appeared with a bottle of water in hand, “You’re going to want to hydrate.” It was no surprise Derek had picked clubbing as his activity of choice to celebrate.

“Thanks,” JJ had said hoarsely, eyes never leaving Emily’s figure. She threw back her head and laughed at some joke JJ wished she was privy to. Instead, she took a sip of water in the hopes of dousing the flare of irrational jealousy. 

It didn’t help.

“Hmm, you might need a second bottle with how thirsty you look,” Penelope said contemplatively. JJ choked on her water as Emily glanced over her shoulder with kohl-lined lashes and winked. _Winked._

At the time, it had felt like such a tragedy that JJ couldn’t melt into a puddle of flustered goo to avoid the embarrassing reality that Penelope caught her staring and that Emily _had_ to know about her helpless crush.

Today, as Emily slips into their living room wearing that same dress for their anniversary dinner, JJ can’t find fault in how stunning the color red looks on her lover.

Even when Emily smirks like the cat that caught the canary _and_ the cream.


	2. Pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily has never understood the concept of pride.

Emily has never understood the concept of pride.

 _A feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired_ , she remembers reading as a child, a young adult, a grown woman.

Satisfaction didn’t feel like happiness, could be entirely outside of each other’s orbit depending on the subject or situation. Both were positive.

Pride was negative, associated with envy, _pride before the fall_ as the saying went.

Pride was her mother: cold, distant, waiting by the phone at all hours to better her country, achieving the impossible by talking fellow diplomats and their leaders off the ledge before anarchy could strike. Doing whatever she could to grab and hold her mother’s attention, accomplishments to be touted before dignitaries of the highest order from across the globe, to impress because failure was not an option.

So, possessions. But possessions meant little to someone who was eternally on the move, dropping everything to be where she was needed most, no rhyme or reason. She had no use for items that would only weigh her down.

Which left people.

Emily could admit to a kernel of warmth every time JJ coolly put someone in their place, saccharine smile out in full force. Felt the fizzing of airy bubbles in her chest when they had both returned to the team — their family — and learned of JJ’s promotion, her grit and dedication to finish the classes needed to formally admit her to the profiling ranks. How she’d passed it all with flying colors.

But it’s here at the park on a cloudless, sunny day, lapis blue sky as far as the eye can see, that Emily finally starts to believe in the concept of pride: stretched out on one of Penelope’s hand knit blankets, JJ a few feet away crouched behind a T-stand with Henry in front of her, gently guiding the swing of his foam bat. Henry had expressed an interest in baseball the previous weekend after joining his mom for a Phillies game parked on the sofa, while Emily amused herself with a battered copy of _Crime and Punishment_ in its original Russian while tucked into the opposite couch corner. He’d been enraptured.

Henry wears that same expression now as JJ swings their arms and sends the plastic ball airborne. “Good job, Hen!” She gushes, running to retrieve the ball. “Now, how about giving it a try yourself?”

JJ takes a couple steps back, close enough for Emily to snake a hand around her ankle and give a warm squeeze. Henry shuffles forward and carefully lines up his bat. He gives a couple clumsy test swings, looks back at them, and, when they give him encouraging smiles, returns his attention to the ball with the same concentrated squint JJ gets when reviewing case files.

He pulls his arms back— 

And the ball goes flying with a cushioned _smack_.

“Wow Hen, that was amazing!” JJ says, quickly scooping him up into a bear hug.

“I’d say that’s a home run,” Emily opines.

Mother and son wear matching beaming grins and as two sets of baby blues look her way, Emily can feel a grin of her own crossing her lips, chest burning brightly.


	3. Buttercup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “All’s fair in love and war, buttercup,” JJ whispered, close enough to feel the faintest brush of lips against her own, “now suck it up.”

“Knock knock, sugarpie, it’s lunch time.”

JJ stopped mid-notation, slowly raising her head to meet amused chestnut eyes framed by glossy black bangs. “Pardon?”

Emily slouched further in the doorway of JJ’s office. “I said it’s lunch time. Come grab something with me?” She widened her eyes pleadingly.

“What was the second part?”

“The nickname?” Emily smirked. “Why, do you hate it?”

“Sure do, honeybear.” JJ smiled back with a hint of teeth.

Emily strolled into JJ’s office, taking a seat on the corner of her desk next to a monstrous stack of case files that looked like it would collapse if so much as a feather landed on top.   
Emily hid a grimace. For all that she and Morgan liked to complain about their caseloads and all the bureaucratic red tape that seemed to manifest itself no matter how small the task, they at least had Reid, who didn’t mind if they foisted a couple files upon him here and there. Hell, he even made a game of it sometimes, timing how fast it took to complete each folder. At least he seemed to enjoy it.

She and Morgan still hadn’t settled their bet on who actually had more work but they knew for sure it wasn’t anywhere near Reid’s case load.

Emily hummed. “How about babycakes?”

JJ couldn’t mask the revulsion fast enough. “Now you’re stealing from Garcia.”

“Are you saying you don’t like Garcia’s pet names?”

JJ leaned into Emily’s space until mere inches separated them. “I thought you had more creativity than stealing,” she murmured with a tilt of her head, exposing the long line of her neck to the hollow of her throat, “sweetheart.”

Emily shivered. JJ smirked, triumph lighting her eyes sapphire blue.

“That’s not fair,” Emily said lowly, hardly daring to breathe. She only realized she’d closed the distance when JJ’s visage turned blurry.

“All’s fair in love and war, buttercup,” JJ whispered, close enough to feel the faintest brush of lips against her own, “now suck it up.”  
And then she was gone, rising from her seat and pulling on her peacoat with a flourish.

Emily could only stare.

“Come on, lunch isn’t going to pay for itself,” JJ teased, halfway to the door.

Emily slowly shook her head. “I think I like the other interpretation better.” She stood and made her way to a confused JJ.

“What other interpretation?”

Emily gently brushed aside a few errant blonde locks. “Pucker up, buttercup.” She pecked JJ on the lips then sauntered out of her office with the taste of watermelon lip gloss on her tongue.

Alone, JJ rolled her eyes, failing to contain a wide grin. “I think I prefer that one too.”


	4. Feather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re high.” Emily said bluntly.
> 
> JJ giggled. “High as a feather!”

The steady beeping of hospital monitors would forever exist in Emily’s nightmares, but for tonight, they served as a blessing.

Their latest case had ended with a foot chase through a derelict building and JJ throwing herself full tilt at their fleeing perpetrator — right through a rotting wall and down a flight of stairs.

Emily doesn’t remember if the walls reverberated with her scream or if it was only in her head, deafening all the same.

She could still taste the copper tang of fear in the back of her throat as she sat in JJ’s hospital room hours later, lights turned low, one hand cradling JJ’s and the other crushing the life out of a long empty styrofoam cup. Every time she closed her eyes JJ was flying through the air, blonde hair whipping wildly as she sailed over the edge with the unsub, too far from Emily’s reach.

Too far for her to save.

Luckily, JJ was only admitted with cracked ribs, a minor concussion, and a disparate mess of aches that were going to bruise plum purple constellations from head to toe.

Emily hadn’t dared touch higher than her wrist, rubbing small circles into the back of JJ’s hand with her thumb.

A soft groan came from the bed. Immediately, Emily’s attention snapped back to the present, body freezing.

“No,” her wife groaned, “don’t stop.”

“Stop what?”

“The circles.”

Emily tentatively resumed her ministrations to JJ’s pleased hum.

“Feels like feathers.”

Emily blinked. “Feathers?”

“Mhmm. Feels nice ‘n soft... ooh, soft serve. That sounds nice.” JJ smiled blearily. Even lying in a hospital bed at 2 o’clock in the morning with plaster dust in her hair and azure eyes bleary with fatigue, she was the loveliest woman Emily had ever seen — and miraculously all hers.

The sudden wave of relief and pure love nearly swamped her in its intensity. 

“I’m sure it does.” Emily hastily cleared her too tight throat and smiled back. “Ice cream always makes me feel better.”

“Make your head feel light too?”

“Those would be the painkillers, my love.”

JJ blinked uncomprehendingly.

“You’re high.” Emily said bluntly.

JJ giggled. “High as a feather!”

“I think the phrase is ‘light as a feather’ but good try.” Emily chuckled, giving JJ’s hand a firm squeeze.

“That too.”

“Considering how solidly you tackled that six-foot-five unsub, I think you weigh a bit more than, hon.”

JJ nodded solemnly. “Steel is heavier than feathers.”

Emily tipped her head back and laughed, releasing the tangle of emotion trapped in her chest until all she could feel was the reassuring warmth of JJ’s hand in hers. “Of course, you’re the strongest woman I know.”


	5. Mermaid AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A haunting melody rises from the waves below, carried on the whipping wind as Emily tips backwards, savoring the feel of dewy grass between her toes one last time before shoving off the cliff face.
> 
> She closes her eyes.

The howling wind stings her eyes as she stands on the cliff’s edge, watching bright moonlight be sucked into the dark, turbulent waters below.

Somehow, above the raucous wind and the crashing waves, she hears his call. “Lauren!”

She turns, wedding gown billowing around her too-thin frame, not bothering to reply. The wind would carry it away, had she a desire to say anything at all. She ignores the sting of fresh cuts on her arms and legs that weep blood, payment for her frantic flight through the forest away from her doom: a blissfully wedded lie.

She’ll reach her true home soon.

“Lauren,” her would-be husband yells, fighting to be heard over Mother Nature, “Come away from there, it’s dangerous!”

She takes a step back.

“Lauren!”

Another step.

_“Lauren, you come here now or you’ll sincerely regret it!”_

A third step, this time poised over open water, body balancing entirely on her left foot.

She finds his furious eyes in the darkness. “My name is Emily.”

A haunting melody rises from the waves below, carried on the whipping wind as Emily tips backwards, savoring the feel of dewy grass between her toes one last time before shoving off the cliff face.

She closes her eyes.

The melody picks up pace, growing louder as she plummets in a tangle of white lace and satin, crescendoing right before she hits the water.

And then it’s quiet.  


***

  
Emily drifts back to consciousness led by a beautiful, soft melody, nothing like the anticipatory thrum she vaguely remembers from falling, floating in shallow waters and anchored by a pair of toned arms. She keeps her eyes closed. “Mmm, that’s lovely.”

The song cuts off. “That was quite the scene earlier. Must you always be so dramatic?”

“You love my dramatic streak.”

“I would love never having to cut you out of a one-ton wedding dress again. You looked radiant, but your manmade fabrics are so... cumbersome.”

Emily finally opens her eyes to meet the bright blue gaze of JJ, sun bleached blonde hair damp from sea spray and wearing the sweetest smile she’s ever seen. She’s lit by the bioluminescent algae that blankets the walls of the small alcove tucked away under the rocky cliff face. The roaring of the waves is distant here, only JJ’s soft breathing loud in Emily’s ears.

JJ shifts on her flat stone perch, sapphire colored tail tugging Emily closer. Her scales are warm and smooth to the touch.

“There you are,” JJ says, running a hand through Emily’s tangled locks.

“Here I am,” Emily answers. She raises one pale hand to cradle JJ’s tanned cheek. “I told you I would come back to you.”

JJ returns the caress, twining her fingers through obsidian strands to cup the back of Emily’s neck. “I never doubted you. Twenty years you've proven you'll always return to me."

Emily gently tugs JJ down to murmur against her lips, "And now we can have each other always."

JJ meets her halfway, humming her joyous tune once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know rusalka folklore centers around rivers and lakes, but I tweaked it for their happily ever after. Just two water spirits doing what they want, whenever they want.


	6. Orange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JJ raised her wooden spoon threateningly as those clever fingers attempted a second pass. “Garcia isn’t the only one who likes to bake, you know.”

“I can’t believe you know how to make marmalade from scratch,” Emily said while stealing a swipe from a cooling bowl. “Disbelieving but duly impressed.”

JJ raised her wooden spoon threateningly as those clever fingers attempted a second pass. “Garcia isn’t the only one who likes to bake, you know.” Once Emily’s fingers slunk away in defeat she returned to scooping cooled spread into mason jars.

It was Sunday. They’d had a rare full weekend spent at home not jetting around the country solving crises, and tomorrow was the PTA bake sale at Henry’s elementary school. He’d begged her to make something different than the usual cookies and pies the event was known for and suggested ‘the yummy orange spread’ they only had with indulgent weekend breakfasts.

“Pleeease,” he had pleaded with those huge moon eyes Emily had taught him to use since JJ always caved. Emily had stood behind him, hands resting on his shoulders and a twinkle in her eye.

“Please JJ? I’m sure I can _sweeten_ the deal.” Emily purred, eyes sliding to half-lidded.

JJ had caved.

Come Sunday, lover and son were conscripted for assistant baking duty.

"I'm aware of your baking prowess," Emily said, drawing JJ from her thoughts. "It's hard to forget homemade crème brûlée with a side of dark chocolate dipped strawberries for one's birthday desert." She smirked. 

JJ felt faint heat suffuse her cheeks, remembering _how_ exactly those strawberries had been consumed. She glanced up at Emily from beneath her lashes. "I seem to recall you singing my praises quite thoroughly."

Emily's eyes darkened. She slunk around the island counter, pressing her front flush with JJ's back, hands resting on JJ's hips. "I'm sure you can get me to sing them again." Emily breathed, brushing a kiss just behind JJ's ear.

JJ shivered, leaning back into Emily's hold. "Only good baking assistants get a reward." She could feel Emily's smirk against her neck.

"Maman, where do I put these? Mom said she needs more."

Both women looked up as Henry walked in from the dining room, transporting another load of empty mason jars pressed tightly to his chest.

"There's room over here," Emily waved to a small ingredient free patch of counter space, stepping away to make more room for the five extra jars. JJ missed her warmth immediately.

"Do you need help, Henry?" JJ asked, eyeing her son's lightly trembling arms as he shuffled across the tile.

"Nope." Henry reached the kitchen island and raised up on tiptoe to set them down. He wobbled, one jar slipping from his grasp. Emily swooped in to catch the stray jar, gently placing it with the others.

"Thanks for the help, bud." Emily said, ruffling Henry's blond locks until they stuck up wildly in every direction.

Henry beamed. Emily's returning grin was just as bright and JJ felt her chest fill with pure sunlight at the happiness exuding from her two favorite stars.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://physics-magic.tumblr.com/).


End file.
